Lean vs Cant - What's the difference?
lean | cant | Synonyms |
To incline, deviate, or bend, from a vertical position; to be in a position thus inclining or deviating.
To incline in opinion or desire; to conform in conduct; with to'', ''toward , etc.
* (Edmund Spenser) (c.1552–1599)
To rest or rely, for support, comfort, etc.; with on'', ''upon'', or ''against .
* (1809-1892)
* , chapter=23
, title= To hang outwards.
To press against.
* (John Dryden) (1631-1700)
(of a person or animal) slim; not fleshy.
(of meat) having little fat.
Having little extra or little to spare; scanty; meagre.
Of a fuel-air mixture, having more air than is necessary to burn all of the fuel; more air- or oxygen- rich than necessary for a stoichiometric reaction.
(printing, archaic) Of a character which prevents the compositor from earning the usual wages; opposed to fat.
To thin out (a fuel-air mixture): to reduce the fuel flow into the mixture so that there is more air or oxygen.
* {{quote-magazine
, year=1938
, month=July
, author=Blaine and Dupont Miller
, title=Weather Hop
, page=25
, magazine=Boy's Life
, publisher=Boy Scouts of America
, issn=0006-8608
* {{quote-magazine
, year=2002
, month=July
, author=Tom Benenson
, title=Can Your Engine Run Too Lean?
, volume=129
, issue=7
, page=73
, magazine=Flying
, issn=0015-4806
(countable) An argot, the jargon of a particular class or subgroup.
* 1836 , Three discourses preached before the Congregational Society in Watertown,
(countable, uncountable) A private or secret language used by a religious sect, gang, or other group.
Shelta.
(uncountable, pejorative) Empty, hypocritical talk.
* 1749 , , Book IV ch iv
* 1759-1770 ,
(uncountable) Whining speech, such as that used by beggars.
(countable, heraldry) A blazon of a coat of arms that makes a pun upon the name of the bearer, canting arms.
(obsolete) A call for bidders at a public fair; an auction.
* Jonathan Swift
To speak with the jargon of a class or subgroup.
* Ben Jonson
* Bishop Sanderson
To speak in set phrases.
To preach in a singsong fashion, especially in a false or empty manner.
* Beaumont and Fletcher
(heraldry) Of a blazon, to make a pun that references the bearer of a coat of arms.
(obsolete) To sell by auction, or bid at an auction.
(obsolete) corner, niche
* Ben Jonson
slope, the angle at which something is set.
*
An outer or external angle.
An inclination from a horizontal or vertical line; a slope or bevel; a tilt.
A movement or throw that overturns something.
* 1830 , The Edinburgh Encyclopedia, volume 3,
A sudden thrust, push, kick, or other impulse, producing a bias or change of direction; also, the bias or turn so give.
(coopering) A segment forming a side piece in the head of a cask.
A segment of the rim of a wooden cogwheel.
(nautical) A piece of wood laid upon the deck of a vessel to support the bulkheads.
To set (something) at an angle.
To give a sudden turn or new direction to.
To bevel an edge or corner.
To overturn so that the contents are emptied.
(British, dialect) lively, lusty.
As verbs the difference between lean and cant
is that lean is to incline, deviate, or bend, from a vertical position; to be in a position thus inclining or deviating while cant is to speak with the jargon of a class or subgroup.As adjectives the difference between lean and cant
is that lean is slim; not fleshy while cant is lively, lusty.As a noun cant is
an argot, the jargon of a particular class or subgroup.lean
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) ; via Proto-Indo-European with climate, cline.Verb
- They delight rather to lean to their old customs.
- He leaned not on his fathers but himself.
The Mirror and the Lamp, passage=The slightest effort made the patient cough. He would stand leaning on a stick and holding a hand to his side, and when the paroxysm had passed it left him shaking.}}
- His fainting limbs against an oak he leant .
Derived terms
* lean back * leaning * lean on * lean-toEtymology 2
From (etyl) .Adjective
(er)- a lean''' budget; a '''lean harvest
- lean copy, matter, or type
Synonyms
* See alsoVerb
(en verb)citation, passage=He leaned the mixture in an effort to cause a backfire through the carburetor, the generally accepted method of breaking the ice loose. }}
citation, passage=Even the Pilot's Operating Handbooks (POH) for our training airplanes add to our paranoia with their insistence that we not lean the mixture until we're above 5000 feet density altitude. }}
Etymology 3
Icelandic (leyna)?; akin to (etyl) word for "deny". Compare .See also
*References
* *cant
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) , cognate with chant.Noun
(en-noun)- He had the look of a prince, but the cant of a fishmonger.
page 65
- I am aware that the phrase free inquiry has become too much a cant phrase soiled by the handling of the ignorant and the reckless by those who fall into the mistake of supposing that religion has its root in the understanding and by those who can see just far enough to doubt and no further.
- People claim to care about the poor of Africa, but it is largely cant .
- He is too well grounded for all your philosophical cant to hurt.
- Of all the cants' which are canted in this canting world — though the '''cant''' of hypocrites may be the worst — the ' cant of criticism is the most tormenting!
- To sell their leases by cant .
Synonyms
* (private or secret language) argot, jargon, slang * (musical singing) chant, singsongVerb
(en verb)- The doctor here, / When he discourseth of dissection, / Of vena cava and of vena porta, / The meseraeum and the mesentericum, / What does he else but cant ?
- that uncouth affected garb of speech, or canting language, if I may so call it
- the rankest rogue that ever canted
- (Jonathan Swift)
Etymology 2
Noun
(en noun)- The first and principal person in the temple was Irene, or Peace; she was placed aloft in a cant .
- Owing to the cant of the vessel, the masts hung far out over the water, and from my perch on the cross-trees I had nothing below me but the surface of the bay.
- (Totten)
page 621
- It is not only of great service in keeping the boat in her due position on the sea, but also in creating a tendency immediately to recover from any sudden cant , or lurch, from a heavy wave; and it is besides beneficial in diminishing the violence of beating against the sides of the vessel which she may go to relieve.
- to give a ball a cant
- (Knight)
- (Knight)
Verb
(en verb)- to cant''' a cask; to '''cant a ship
- to cant''' round a stick of timber; to '''cant a football